Another Retro Diner and Angels Flight

I took this on the drive back from Palm Springs yesterday morning. These are the mountains just outside town, looking hazy and blue in the morning light. Spectacular! I couldn't imagine living there and seeing sights like this every day.

So yes, now we're back in the city. The drive back was uneventful, and we timed it so we'd arrive in L.A. right around lunchtime. The plan was to go to Pann's!

Pann's is yet another cool, authentic '50s diner, as you will remember if you've been reading this blog for 16 years (!) and have a supersonic memory. In April 2008 I wrote about passing the restaurant on the way from the airport "every time I go to L.A.," which cracks me up because I made it sound like I'm here all the time. I visited Pann's back then with my friend Christopher and took some photos, which I blogged. This time, I was excited to show it to Dave.

He was not disappointed! We sat at the bar and ordered breakfast and he waxed rhapsodic about the biscuits. I waxed equally rhapsodic about the pancakes.

Outside, the restaurant is largely unchanged -- though someone has added a crappy-looking tent near the front entrance, and let's hope that doesn't stick around long. It's a very hard building to photograph because it's at the corner of two major six-lane roads on a tiny lot, with a constant stream of heavy traffic passing by. I tried it from several angles and the perspective above was the best I could do. 

Inside it's pretty much unchanged, but was much busier than the last time I was here! Our waitress was a hoot -- I ordered two eggs, and when she repeated my order back she said "six eggs," and added with a wink, "I don't hear too good." (She was kidding.)

The bathroom still features these cool fish tiles, which I blogged last time.

Dave talked me into buying a mango-colored Pann's t-shirt that I may or may not ever wear, because yellow/orange is not normally my color. We'll see.

We came back to our same hotel in Westwood, checked in, dropped off our stuff and got ready for yet another night out -- this time in downtown L.A. Months ago, Dave bought tickets to a performance of the L.A. Philharmonic at the Disney concert hall, a groovy silver Frank Gehry building that looks like a tangle of bent and discarded aluminum.

I've been pretty courageous about driving in L.A. so far, but I admit I was worried about driving into downtown at rush hour. So we went very early and got there about three hours before the performance. I thought traffic would be gridlock but we took Wilshire Boulevard all the way, and it was fine. We drove through MacArthur Park, debating the merits of the song, and saw a lot of interesting local characters -- including a guy carrying what appeared to be a styrofoam boogie board on his back, emblazoned with the message, "UP YERS."

By the time we ate an early dinner it was getting dark. We walked over to the Angels Flight, a 123-year-old railway that runs one block up and down a steep hill. I wanted to see it and ride it, given that I'm reading Michael Connelly's Bosch mystery "Angels Flight," in which a murder takes place on the railway. (If you've seen the "Bosch" TV show, you'll remember this storyline as well.)

The two cars, which go up and down simultaneously, passing each other in the middle, are named after mountains in the Bible. We rode "Olivet," and as you can see from my photo, even the car itself is pretty steep on the inside. In the novel, which was written 25 years ago, it cost a quarter to ride. Now it costs $1.

We walked around Grand Central Market, at the bottom of the hill, and peered through the glass doors into the atrium of the historic Bradbury building. Then we zipped back to Angels Flight, took Olivet back up the slope, and made it to the concert hall in plenty of time to watch the performance of Schubert's Symphony No. 6 and Beethoven's No. 7. Dave mentioned on Facebook that we were there, and one of his students from almost 20 years ago happened to be in the audience too -- so we met up afterwards for a brief chat. What a small world!

Today we hope to make a quick trip to the Getty Museum before we catch our evening flight to London. Coming to you tomorrow -- and posting late, probably in mid-afternoon -- from home sweet home! I'm looking forward to seeing Olga but I will miss this sunshine.